Contact centers may be used by an organization to communicate in an efficient and systematic manner with outside parties. Such centers may for example have large numbers of agents staffing telephones, and interacting with outside parties and with each other. Calls may be placed on hold or into an interactive voice response (IVR) server when first connected to the contact center; subsequently an agent may take a call, place it back on hold, transfer the call, conference in another agent, or take other such actions related to the call. Outside parties may also interact with a contact center by other mechanisms, including initiating contact through on-line chat, video, email, and the like.
A caller making a call to a contact center may, for example, be a consumer, and the contact center may be operated by or for a manufacturer of products, one of which the consumer has purchased, and the consumer may be calling for help in using the product. In this case, the IVR server may ask the consumer about the reason for her call, e.g., to order supplies, to get help using the product, or to return a product for repair, and the IVR server may follow up with additional questions, including questions about the type of product, the model number of the product, or the like. Once the IVR server has gathered a certain amount of information, the call may be placed in a queue, to wait for the availability of an agent employed at the contact center. After waiting in the queue, the caller may be connected to an agent, who may then provide the help the caller needs.
This process may take a significant amount of time, and during this process, there is a risk that the caller may be disconnected, or may need to disconnect, for any of a number of reasons. The caller may be interrupted by some other pressing matter, such as an urgent matter on another phone line, or a delivery man, or a colleague, or, particularly if the caller is using a mobile phone, the connection may be dropped by the telephone service. In another scenario, a call may be terminated prior to successful completion if, for example, the caller voluntarily disconnects and then realizes that she neglected to ask the agent an important question, or that the agent neglected to give her an important piece of information.
Terminating a call without successful completion may result in considerable caller frustration, as a result of the significant amount of time the caller may have invested, with little or no return. A disconnected caller may be faced with a choice of either foregoing the help she wants, or making an additional substantial investment of time, again with a risk that it may be wasted if she is disconnected.
Thus, there is a need for an improved system for handling calls disconnected prior to successful completion.